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Lowell raising fees to park

LOWELL -- After repeated calls from downtown business owners in recent months, the city significantly scaled back the parking-rate increase approved by the City Council Tuesday night.

However, the city could not afford to scale the hike back further, officials stressed before the unanimous vote.

But the parking-rate increases, which were approved by a 9-0 vote, were scaled back enough to keep Lowell on the lower end of the regional market average, according to officials.

The city is raising parking rates to pay for the new $35 million garage in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District, along with paying for repairs in current garages.

Today, the unrestricted monthly garage rate is $64. That monthly pass rate is going up to $87, starting on July 1.

Then in future years, the rate will be tied to the Consumer Price Index, which increases about 2 percent annually.

The focus of debate has been over the garage-rate increase, but the parking-meter rate will also rise from $1 per hour to $1.50 per hour.

Today, downtown business groups of 20 or more pay $52 per month. That rate is jumping up to $71.

Residents of the central business district pay $48 per month today. That's increasing to $66.

People 62 years old and over living downtown, those who are handicapped or disabled living downtown, pay $26 per month today. That rate will go to $36.

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The city administration said these increased rates achieve the delicate balance of raising much-needed revenue without overly burdening the city's business owners and residents.

"This is a momentous step for us to tackle deferred maintenance," said Parking Director Nick Navin. "This will result in tangible benefits to all facilities over time.

"These are still some of the most favorable rates in the commonwealth," he added.

Downtown business owners have fought against proposed parking-rate increases during the last year, causing the City Council to study the issue more.

Under a proposal last year, the unrestricted monthly garage rates would have risen from $64 to $100 in 2018. The rates would have gradually gone up to $145 in 2021. However, downtown business owners spoke in opposition to the proposal back then, which led to the council sending the plan back to the city manager for further review.

Then at a recent council meeting, owner after owner opposed the hike of $23 per month -- the one approved unanimously Tuesday night.

Since then, the city has worked on bringing downtown business owners and landlords together to work on a cost-sharing solution with the parking rates.

City Manager Eileen Donoghue said they have discussed grouping smaller businesses together to take advantage of the discounted group rate.

"I think that's a good option for businesses that are concerned about this," City Councilor Rodney Elliott said.

"Nobody wants to raise rates, but we have to sustain what's going on and not put this on the backs of taxpayers," he added.

If the council didn't approve a parking-rate increase, taxpayers all across the city would have been affected.

Without an increase, the enterprise parking fund would have been in the red by fiscal 2021. Under that scenario, taxes would have gone up around the city.

For the average single family, that would have resulted in a projected $36.56 increase in fiscal 2021, $107.33 increase in fiscal 2022, $174.11 increase in fiscal 2023 and $229.20 increase in fiscal 2024.

Those increases across the city were avoided with Tuesday's parking-rate increase approval.

Parking rates haven't been raised for 15 years.

But Michael Najjar, of Marcotte Law Firm on Merrimack Street downtown, said the pricing scheme was "unfair." He pointed to discounts for Lowell High School and UMass Lowell.

"There's just a disparity," he said. "That's the point of the opposition."

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